So yesterday was my followup with Dr. Young (the neurosurgeon)...he checked out my incisions, said everything looked pretty good. he got some forceps and scissors and cut off the little dangly strings coming out of the end of my incisions. he said one of his techs in the OR likes to close up that way, but damn if those little dangly strings didn't bug the hell outta me! i just wanted to pluck them off - not a good idea though! they're gone now!! doc said there was a little abcess but it's fine now. i asked about the fact that the VNS is moving around when i lie down, and how that freaks me out, and he told me there's a stitch in there to hold things in place, and that it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. still a bit freaky to see a bulge where there wasn't one previously. doc says to stay outta the sun until the pinkness fades away because i'll be much more susceptible to getting it sunburned - ouch!!

i go to dr. mohan to get it turned on tomorrow at 10:30 am.

meanwhile, in today's mail...

a letter from St. Vincent's (the hospital where I had the surgery) - they're just writing to let me know that they're billing my HMO and they'll let me know how much I owe after the HMO pays...so I didn't get an itemized bill, but they did have the account balance on the letter:

$22,989.12

WOAH!!!! man, imagine if this had been inpatient!!!